Carnaval Update

Carnaval is starting to wrap up, and I've been thinking about my list of 22 a la The Queen and The Champ. I know you all wanted pictures, but since I cannot locate the little cable thingy I can't upload them. I'm very sorry about that my dear readers....

1. Friday night at midnight crews showed up to build the tents on the street, right outside my window. 
   
2. Saturday morning it was raining and it didn't look promising. 
3. A lady across the street set up table to sell homemade tamales and other foodstuff. 
4. The cops closed down the lady across the street pretty quickly. I guess even at Carnaval, you need to have a permit to sell food on the street. 
5. The rain stopped on Saturday, but the crowds weren't out in full force. 
6. Outside my window was a dance floor where they had break dancers for a while and some Japanese drums performed for a period. 
7. By 5:45 PM Saturday night, the crowds were cleared out and things were coming down. The SF police were very good at moving folks along. 
8. Sunday morning the sun was up and it was a beautiful day, not too warm, not too cool. 
9. I went to the parade, which was about two blocks from my place. 
10. The parade was a very community oriented event. Lots of dance troops from what looked like community centers and neighborhood schools. 
11. Saw a teacher dancing the Samba in the street with her students wearing a halter top, sparkly skirt, and full back tattoo. I immediately wished my sister was there to ask if any of the teachers at her school would do that. 
12. Saw lots of feathers and sparkles, lots of drums, lots of skin, lots of color, and lots of happy people at the parade. Great dancing, cute kids dancing, beads being thrown. I love parades!!
13. I was frisked trying to get back to my apartment. Okay, not frisked, but metal wand detector and my purse looked into. 
14. Had a psychic reading. 
15. Registered to vote. 
16. Walked past the port-a-potties to go up to my place to use my own private perma-potty. 
17. Met my neighbor across the hall as I was leaving to go back down to the street. 
18. Went and checked out the booths up and down the street. 
19. Thought about buying some food on the street because they had some great smelling stuff, but because I'm a little phobic about that I just smelled the smells and imagined what the food was like. 
20. Tried on a hat made out of hemp and saw booths of 420 friendly paraphernalia. Bought a pewter ring and then headed back up to my place.
21. Watched a Latin dance-off from my apartment window. I mentioned there was a dance floor right below my window. 
22. It is now 6:45 PM and they have cleared out the crowds again and are already tearing down all f the booths and tents. 

As I watched the parade today I really want to participate next year so I'm going to have find a community group where I can go volunteer. 

Again, sorry that I don't have pictures yet. I'm probably going to have to go buy a new camera and take my current camera memory cards and see if I can find a place to get them down loaded.